Vol. 43, No 6 www.arlingtondemocrats.org June 2018 Two Dem Chances pick up in yet another stalwarts Virginia congressional district Republican Rep. Tom Garrett has announced ship. die in he will not seek re-election this fall in order to cope The sprawling district is largely rural and Re- with his alcoholism. His decision improves the publican. But the district also is home to same chances of another Democratic pickup, in this case Charlottesville, one of the most Democratic juris- by Leslie Cockburn, who captured the nomination dictions in the state. week at a district convention a few weeks before Garrett Cockburn, a former journalist with 60 Minutes called it quits. and Vanity Fair, will need to drive up Democratic Garrett represents the 5th Congressional Dis- turnout in Charlottesville and surrounding trict, one of the more interestingly-shaped districts. Albemarle County as well as in scattered African- It is a triangle with its broad base on the North Caro- American communities around the district where lina border and its northern tip slightly farther north turnout is historically poor in off-year elections. than the northernmost point in Arlington! Cockburn easily won nomination in the dis- The 5th District was won by Democrat Tom trict convention May 5, taking 146 votes to 62 and Perriello in the Obama year of 2008. But Perriello 28 votes for her two remaining opponents. lost it two years later to Robert Hurt. Hurt retired As The Voice noted last month, Garrett has been after three terms and Garrett won the seat in 2016. quite poor at fund-raising, alarming state GOP lead- DENNY JOHNSON Garrett, a member of the ultra-rightwing Free- ers. As of mid-April, Cockburn, who had to spend May 1 May 5 dom Caucus, is one of 36 of the 235 House Repub- to win the nomination, had $271,000 on hand, while licans who is retiring—15 percent of the member- continued on page six See their obits on Pages 8 & 9 More voters found assigned to the wrong delegate districts Read the messages from Remember that House of Delegates race that Simonds lost in 2015 to Republican David Yancey our two candidates for ended in a tie last year and which the Republican and then lost the draw after the tie vote, again to the nomination for County won when his name was drawn out of a bowl? Well, Yancey, in 2017. Board on Page Five. The Washington Post has now found that 26 voters “There are thousands of ways I could have won in an overwhelmingly Democratic precinct in that that election,” Simonds told the Post. “I met a district were erroneously assigned to an adjoining woman recently who told me she had a breathing district and didn’t get to vote in that tied election. episode in the polling place ... and the ambulance The chief culprit appears to be the practice of took her out of the polling place before she could the General Assembly to draw district lines down vote for me. So many different ways. You’ve just the middle of precincts to create mathematically given me another 26 ways.” precise districts or to help benefit the majority The frustration was compounded because bal- party—i.e., gerrymandering. The result is a major lot mishaps in another split district could have also challenge for local registrars who must not only cost Democrats another House district in the assign residences to precincts but then assign resi- Fredericksburg-area last year. Democrats would dences within precincts to different legislative dis- have had a tie in the House of Delegates if they had tricts. picked up either the Newport News or DE FERRANTI CHOUN Shelly Simonds, the Democratic candidate who Fredericksburg seat and would have taken outright lost the draw, and thus the election, shrugged her control 51-49 had they won both. AND VOTE IN THE shoulders. The deadline to appeal election results The Republican Party blamed the Democrats PRIMARY, JUNE 12 from 2017 has long since passed. But Simonds has for both goofs. John “B.T.” March, spokesman for already announced she will run again in 2019. continued on page six ACDC Voice, June 2018, Page 2 Report from Chair Jill Caiazzo Blue Wave delivers for Virginians Virginia has once again made headlines across the country for all the right reasons. After a five-year fight in the face of fierce Republican opposition, the Virginia General Assembly finally approved Medicaid expan- sion. As a result, more than 400,000 low in- come Virginians will have access to healthcare, funded by money that Virginia taxpayers already have been sending to the federal government in Washington. This legislative sea change is an enor- mous win for all Virginians struggling with high healthcare costs — and it would not have been possible without the Democratic law- makers who were swept into office last year as part of the Blue Wave of 2017. Republican lawmakers were forced to reckon with these new progressive leaders — not to mention a well-founded fear of subsequent Blue Waves in 2018 and beyond. The new Democratic lawmakers, along with their longer-serving colleagues from deep blue jurisdictions like Arlington, owe their seats victory for all Virginians, but we should not good things happen when Democrats are to the legions of everyday Democrats who take this outcome for granted. The Koch elected. worked tirelessly on the campaign trail. It there- brothers have poured enormous sums of And, of course, we must keep electing fore should be no surprise that these lawmak- money into Virginia politics in recent years. Democrats! We should expect to see another ers stayed true to hardworking Virginians by Virginia remains a swing state, and the Koch influx of Koch brothers’ money later this year voting in favor of Medicaid expansion. In con- brothers know it. They wouldn’t waste their as Virginia’s competitive Senate race heats up. trast, all but a handful of Republican lawmak- money on a lost cause. This year’s Medicaid Senator Kaine’s reelection will not be easy. ers voted against the interests of their constitu- struggle was simply the latest skirmish in the Remember that we secured Medicaid expan- ents by continuing to oppose Medicaid expan- long-term battle for Virginia’s soul. sion only by the narrowest of margins. Sena- sion. They weren’t listening to Virginia voters What does this mean for Arlington tor Kaine’s race is likely to be equally close. or paying attention to Virginia’s bottom line. Democrats? For starters, we cannot stand on Just as Arlington Democrats were critical to Instead, they turned their attention to blatant today’s moral victory of Medicaid expansion, changing the political dynamic in Richmond fear-mongering by former Senator Rick no matter how impactful it will be for to enable Medicaid expansion, we will be es- Santorum (R-PA), who served as the front man hardworking Virginians across the Common- sential to Senator Kaine’s margin of victory for the Koch brothers-backed Americans for wealth who are struggling to afford decent in 2018. And, if we are just as relentless on Prosperity in its final fight against Medicaid healthcare. We must continue to fight for pro- the campaign trail as we have been in the halls expansion in Virginia. gressive policies that will benefit the little guy, of the General Assembly for Medicaid expan- Fortunately, sanity — not Santorum — rather than the Koch brothers. We must con- sion, we will succeed. prevailed in Richmond on this critical issue. tinue to capitalize on the political power of Onward! We rightly should celebrate this progressive the Blue Wave of 2017 to demonstrate that Jill LGBT at breakfast Published monthly by the LGBT Pride Month will be marked at Arlington County Democratic Committee the Second Saturday Breakfast to be held June 2001 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite #604, Arlington VA 22202 9. The speaker will be State Senator Adam Mailing address: P.O. Box 7132, Arlington VA 22207 Ebbin, the first openly gay member of the Tel: (703) 528-8588 General Assembly. http://www.arlingtondemocrats.org The breakfast begins at 8:30 a.m. and is Chair: Jill Caiazzo — [email protected] held at the Busboys and Poets in Shirlington, Editor-in-Chief: Warren L. Nelson —(703) 243-7867 (h), [email protected] at 4251 S. Campbell Ave. It’s right near the Views expressed do not necessarily represent those of the ACDC Signature Theater. unless expressly approved by an appropriate committee resolution Also, you are requested to bring cash to Copyright ©2018, ACDC, All Rights Reserved settle up your breakfast bill, as we get one bill for the whole Democratic crowd. ACDC Voice, June 2018, Page 3 State Supreme Next Monthly Meeting Court rejects All Dems Invited Wednesday, June 6, 7:00 p.m. gerrymander NRECA Building, 4301 Wilson Blvd. Corner of North Taylor and Wilson, just east of Glebe and Wilson challenge Free parking under building; enter from Taylor Street Virginia’s Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the state’s 2011 redistricting pro- The program at this month’s meeting will deal with cess and found that 11 challenged state House housing affordability in Arlington. Our panel will be and Senate districts are constitutionally valid, comprised of Tim Dempsey of Our Revolution Arling- a major blow to efforts to end gerrymander- ton–Workers Cooperative Housing, and Emily Cadik, ing in Virginia. executive director of the Affordable Housing Tax Credit The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by OneVirginia2021, the principal redistricting Coalition. advocacy group in the commonwealth that alleged lawmakers violated a state constitu- tional requirement that legislative districts be compact.